Bag

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the seventeenth century, gift-giving had become an elaborate ritual among the upper classes. Monetary gifts were often presented in small decorative purses made from costly materials. Gift purses such as these enameled drawstring bags were a specialty of the French town of Limoges. These two bags with enameled portraits may have been intended as wedding gifts.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art